Soft tissues, such as ligaments, tendons, and muscles, are attached to a large portion of the human skeleton. In particular, many ligaments and tendons are attached to the bones which form joints, such as shoulder and knee joints. A variety of injuries and conditions require attachment or reattachment of a soft tissue to bone. For example, when otherwise healthy tissue has been torn away from a bone, surgery is often required to reattach the tissue to the bone to allow healing and a natural reattachment to occur.
A number of devices and methods have been developed to attach soft tissue to bone. These include screws, staples, cement, suture anchors, and sutures. Some of the more successful methods involve use of a suture anchor to attach a suture to the bone and tying the suture in a manner that holds the tissue in close proximity to the bone. However, sutures tend to rip or slide through soft tissues, such as bicep tendons, that have longitudinally extending fibers. It can therefore be difficult or impossible to repair such soft tissues using suture anchors and sutures.
Accordingly, there remains a need for improved methods for attaching soft tissue to bone.